Hawkin Sprike
Hawkin was born in Riverdale, Chimmo, but growing up found his mischief making proclivities went a bit beyond the gnomish community's view of good-natured. His reputation alienated him from his peers and he became increasingly isolated. He started reading significant quantities of literature to satiate his need for human connection, and sought books that could help explain his own misgivings with the way the world worked. A disillusioned gnome is almost an oxymoron, but Hawkin increasingly grew frustrated and jaded as he learned about the tyranny of private power and the exploitation of the working classes along with racist socio-political propaganda programs that maintained the status quo. He decided to leave the bustling, carefree lands of Chimmo to fight the power of the ruling elites by subterfuge in Rega, expanding on a repertoire of skills he had acquired through his childhood. His family were slightly upset to see him go, but were also glad as their social standing was being significantly impaired by the ranting anarchist among the otherwise carefree population. His angst and politically inflammatory rhetoric was really bringing down the mood of the town. In Rega, he slowly ensconced himself with the small and highly insular criminal community, who struggled to carve out a significant trade with the very high stakes in the police state. He had to investigate and stake out burglaries, his specialty, for months at a time before a heist, and generally had to target upper middle class households as the aristocracy had far too much security to be worth it. He gave a cut to the kingpin of the mob splinter that he worked with, but one day stole something of rare value to himself, a "personal job" - a rare copy of Sellwig Elen's banned novel on the internal failings of the police state, massive corruption and exploitation at the highest levels, that he could use to leverage a complete undermining of the system. When his kingpin found out he laughed with his cronies and took it for his personal hoard, remonstrating Hawkin about the foolishness of such a project. Hawkin thought them all shortsighted and booked a one-way journey to Ossu to recover and to start a revolution somewhere less hostile. He would still greatly like his book back. Hawkin doesn't really care about people but still smarts at the injustice of the rigged system, and tries to work against unjust power systems whenever he can. In the chaos of destruction maybe something better will form. He also works for his personal wealth and power, to improve his influence the systems he finds himself in, and fights ideologically rather than for any particular people. He has no problem hurting people of any standing to further his ends, or just for fun. People don't matter, ideas do. History 30/04/2016 Hawkin proved to be a valuable member of the party right from the first fight with the rhino in Oilan. He dexterously jumped across the tables and counters of the Badger and Rabbit, evading the beast while scoring critical blows with his bow, including an early shot through one of its eyes. He showed no sympathy for the beast, taking advantage of the distraction created by Zenyth to score yet more blows, taking it down with ease. When the rest of the party were talking to Penelope Mestindon, Hawkin couldn't resist the opportunity to search her house for valuables, finding a few precious gems in a secret book in her study. In the Shallaian Ruins, he took every opportunity to grab more loot. He sneaked past the death dog that was distracted by Zenyth to grab the gold it was guarding. He mostly dodged the green slime that infested one of the vaults to get to a chest and grab a previous adventurer's coin pouch, but was hit by the final slime. Luckily the slime's acid seemed to be quite weak and he was able to wipe it off with his cloak before it inflicted too much damage to his face. He was also the only member to grab treasures from the treasure vault before it closed and the skeletons began to reassemble, so they made a quick escape. 01/05/2016 After the party were informed about the secret meetings taking place at The Leaky Keg in Westriver, Hawkin was sent on a reconnaissance mission. He attempted to bluff his way into the meetings, but was promptly kicked out by Fahrner, the owner. Hawkin them attempted to climb the building and peer through a window, but chose to knock on it and hide after all he could see was a figure. He noticed the man the party say in the Shallaian Ruins peer out. Hawkin decided that he wasn't likely to get any more information, so left to catch up with the party. He found them as they finished killing the goblins that ambushed them and followed them to the abandoned dwarven fortification a few minutes behind. He encountered the ogre that the party had distracted but did not know what direction they went in, so had a look around. After finding a creature feeding on some lifelike statues of hobgoblins and worgs, he ended up getting the ogre to lead him to the people who had come in before him. Hawkin managed this by stealing a scroll in the ogre's possession while distracting him with an illusory voice calling him stupid (the ogre considered himself a spellcaster) then leading him to believe that the previous prisoners may have stolen the spell. Once he found them, Hawkin backstabbed the ogre for some serious damage, but was then immediately flattened by his club and had to be rescued by Elreon. Hawkin later found himself in a confrontation with Ludo who threatened him for his scroll. After refusing to back down, Hawkin was stabbed by Ludo and knocked unconscious and his scroll was taken. After finding no help from the rest of the party and having his possession stolen, Hawkin attempt to leave the party but failed after finding no other exit and being trapped with them behind a heavy portcullis. After an apology from the party, mostly led by Magnus, Hawkin reluctantly agreed to stay with the party and was given healing potions for his wounds. Hawkin later sneaked straight into Segundil and ran, terrified of the floaty eye monster. At the start of the fight that ensued, Hawkin was the only character to know that Segundil was about to attack them. Following Magnus' accidental shrinking, Hawkin has started to grow more fond of her despite initial personality clashes. They found some gold which they split between them rather than telling the rest of the party. Hawkin was also turned to stone by a basilisk the party encountered, but was saved by some fast thinking by his new found friends who smothered him with stomach juices harvested from the basilisk, deducing that it must turn stone back into organic matter in order to gain nutritional benefit from eating petrified prey. Now feeling as if he owes his life to them, Hawkin put previous differences aside and has agreed to continue working with the party, sharing the loot he acquired earlier in secret. 02/05/2016 Hawkin kept some distance from the party in Paletteville, looking around the Gold Grain Inn while they attempt to reach a consensus about what they should do with Ruhg Kuhn. While snooping around, Magnus found him and told him about her strange observations of the villagers. They kept an eye on the situation and were ready for a fight, but soon realised that the people weren't the danger. In an attempt to find answers, Hawkin scouted to the south with Elreon and found unusual tracks of a group of people (about 30), but was unable to follow these tracks. At nightfall he also noticed a light in the sky and echoing, distant laughter. Hawkin repeatedly attempted to warn Ludo, Magnus and Zenyth, but they gave him little attention. As the light got closer, he realised it was a flaming skull and hit it with an arrow while hiding behind a large building. The arrow clinked off the skull and it retaliated with a large fireball that destroyed the building. Seeing this extreme danger, Hawkin urged Elreon to run and once again returned to the others to tell them that they had to leave. On his way he noticed that most of the inhabitants were being attacked by their shadows. The rest of the party once again ignored this danger, so Hawkin fled before it was too late. He was chased by a shadow, but he managed to hide and leave the village without attracting any more attention. He then regrouped with the party and travelled with them to a nearby forest to rest away from the road. 03/05/2016 Once the party had returned to Oilan, Hawkin thought it best to research what he could into this undead threat. After collecting various myths and legends in the Kakaritsu Library he managed to piece together some recurring themes. Although sometimes undead are raised by a powerful necromancer, they often seem to happen spontaneously. There's been no attacks for hundreds of years. For there to be an army, there is likely to be one or more intelligent leaders organising them. The stories often sounds as if the powerful undead are invincible, but they are eventually destroyed with silvered weapons. 04/05/2016 In light of this new knowledge, Hawkin visited Granny Smiths and silvered a number of arrows in case he happened to find himself fighting them again. Hearing of his friends' arrest, he inquired about bail from an unhelpful guard at the barracks, discovering that it was likely they could pay a find tomorrow and be released. 05/05/2016 Hawkin intended to visit The Watchers and Elreon told him their location so he could attempt to get more information on what's happening. On his walk to Westriver, he discovered that the area was being quarantined following an outbreak, so attempted to climb along the side of a bridge to get past. This proved to be exceptionally difficult and he immediately fell into the water. Deciding that swimming would be a better option, he found a more secluded area and swam to Westriver. In an attempt to avoid the illness, he ran and jumped across the rooftops to reach the Church of Hope. He attempted to climb the bell tower to find an entrance, but slipped and fell of the roof, landing hard on the ground. Once he got to his feet again, he discovered that the church was full of near paralysed people except a priest tending them - Herman Sorberry. Still wishing to avoid the illness, Hawkin found a window to climb through and quickly found The Watchers, or rather, they heard him outside their door. The Watchers proved to be rather unhelpful, not really knowing about the undead nor the illness that had taken over Westriver. They simply suggested that they may soon need help with the assassins guild and that they disproved of the party's sloppy, attention-grabbing methods. He mentioned that this group holding secret meetings would probably change their routine now that they had so obviously been compromised. Hawkin made his way back to the party who had come to the conclusion that a herb in short supply called Earth Smoke may be used to create an antidote, so they left to locate this. Once they were close to the area, Magnus tripped and heard some nearby rustling. Hawkin went to investigate, finding an angry looking, muscular gnoll with red fur who had heard them. Hawkin used the opportunity to attack him before he knew of their presence, then quickly rushed up a tree to hide. A battle ensued with a number of gnolls attacking the party. Hawkin mostly stayed hiding up his tree, shooting arrows. To help finish them off, he climbed down and attempt to get in better range but was caught in one of their net traps. Struggling to escape, an injured, desperate gnoll started to close in on him. Hawkin managed to push him away when he tried to grab him and Zenyth came charging in as a bear, immediately tearing off the gnoll's head.